"Bill Leonhardt" wrote:

I have a quick acting woodworking vice that I inherited from my dad. The
front jaw is higher than the rear jaw by about 1/4". The vise doesn't have
one of the sliding dogs and I have previously mounted the vise so the
projecting front jaw sticks up higher than the surface of my workbench where
it acts like a dog. On the positive side, I can use it to clamp work on the
bench, however, on the negative side, as I slide work around on top of the
bench, it catches on the vise and gets dinged.

My bench top isn't as flat as I would like and, in the near future, I will
be installing a new top. I will, therefore, be remounting this vise. I'd
like to hear comments from the group as to whether people feel that it is
more important to have the dog-like clamping ability (install vise with the
lip proud) or the "clean top" (recess the vise lip).

Duplicate of post made to abpw before this propagated he

This is one of those questions that has to be answered "do what is
best for the way YOU work." You've had experience with it, and it
sounds like the dinging is a problem. How often do you use the dog
feature?

If it were my bench and vise, I would be inclined NOT to remount the
vise, add a new surface tot he bench to slightly above the iron of the
vise, and install new vise-liners to be flush with the benchtop
(probably including a strip to fill the dado in the front iron jaw).
If I found the current dogging ability useful, I would duplicate it
with a removable dog. Before installing the front liner, I would clamp
a 1/2" piece of hardwood on the top of the liner, and drill through it
and the liner three 1/2" holes. Then get some 1/2-inch dowel, and glue
it in the holes of the dog piece. Then slip the dowels extending from
the dog piece in the holes in the liner when you want the raised dog
functionality. I'd probably make the center dowel noticeably
off-center, to help with orientation of the dog.
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